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Light only at breakfast and dinner

pseudodiego

Member
Joined
15 Dec 2021
Messages
59
Location
Spain
Hi everyone.

I'm putting together a 20 gallon tank that will have an small colony of Neolamprologus Multifasciatus on it. For plants, I plan to only use one big pothos on the hang on filter, which survives perfectly with the ambient light of the room.

I really don't want to fight algae in this tank. Do you think I would I get too much algae if I only keep the light full on at breakfast and dinner time? It is around an hour and a half a day, which is basically when my family and I can enjoy the aquarium. The light is a Chihiros Wrgb2 60.

My aquariums are usually heavily planted, so I don't have much experience with a tank like this.

Pros and con to this?

Thanks.
 
Pro's:

Already have the light, no extra expense.
Great colour rendition.

Cons:

Overkill lighting.
May dazzle the fish, discourage them from venturing out.

To be honest, I'd consider getting a cheaper light that you can dim, if not that one, then you can enjoy the tank for longer, but more importantly the fish will have a natural photoperiod.

Not sure to what extent you'd see them display naturally within those narrow time periods of light mentioned above.
 
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Once the pothos takes off and shows signs of new groth traet the tank as fully planted. The pothos will strip the tank of all nutrients quick smart so lighting for an hr or so shouldn't ber a problem but don't forget to feed the pothos a lot.
A weaker light for viewing maybe preferable though
 
Pro's:

Already have the light, no extra expense.
Great colour rendition.

Cons:

Overkill lighting.
May dazzle the fish, discourage them from venturing out.

To be honest, I'd consider getting a cheaper light that you can dim, if not that one, then you can enjoy the tank for longer, but more importantly the fish will have a natural photoperiod.

Not sure to what extent you'd see them display naturally within those narrow time periods of light mentioned above.
The chihiros is dimmable, so I have that option. I thought about putting it at 100% and covering the surface with red root floaters, having that way a normal photoperiod. But not sure if the Red root floaters will tolerate the high PH.
 
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